BY ROGER ANNIS
VANCOUVER - The Communist Party of Canada has won a victory for democratic rights in a court challenge to a 1994 seizure of some of the party's assets by Elections Canada, the election agency of the Canadian government. On May 2, a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court granted $20,000 in court costs as well as ongoing legal expenses pending another hearing of the party's case next November.

The judge also gave government lawyers until May 5 to show cause why the name of the party should not appear on the ballot in the Toronto riding (electoral district) of Davenport where party leader Miguel Figueroa is running in the current federal election.

In 1993, the Canadian Parliament adopted amendments to the Canada Elections Act aimed at muzzling small political parties. The new law raised the fee a candidate must pay to run in a federal election from $200 to $1,000 and the number of signatures of voters required on nomination papers from 25 to 100.

Another section of the new law targeted registered political parties which the government agency decides it doesn't like. It provides for the forced dissolution and seizure of the assets of a registered party which no longer meets the minimum criteria to be recognized as such. The principal criteria is that a registered party must present a minimum of 50 candidates in a federal election. There are 301 ridings represented in the Canadian Parliament.

Registered parties receive government funding and guaranteed access to paid political broadcasts, and they are the only parties with the right to have party names appear on the ballot alongside the names of their candidates.

The Communist Party, a registered party in 1993, was hit by the new law during and after the federal election that year where it presented eight candidates. Its name was not allowed on the ballot and some of its financial and physical assets were seized in April 1994. At least one other party that was deregistered following the 1993 election, the Rhinoceros Party, was not required to turn over its assets.

All parties represented in the Canadian Parliament in 1993 voted in favor of the amendments to the election act. The Communist Party is presenting 13 candidates in the current federal election.

In Vancouver, meanwhile, the party has denounced an April 23 death threat against its members. On that night, an envelope containing 20 bullets and a hand-written note was delivered through the mail slot of the party's office in Vancouver. It read in part, "Our blood has reached the boiling point .. the British Columbia Militia declares war upon your Communist Party. To show we mean business, we include a sample of our M-16's power. We shall exercise this power by randomly shooting people who dare to enter the Communist headquarters." The offices house the editorial office of the party's newspaper, the People's Voice, and Kimball Cariou, the CP's candidate in the current federal election in the Vancouver East electoral district, works there as the newspaper editor.

The party has demanded a full police investigation and increased police surveillance of the busy street where its headquarters is located, and says the response by police has been totally unsatisfactory. On April 28, the Vancouver Police informed the party that it had ceased investigating the threat and would not provide any special surveillance of the area surrounding the party's offices.

Roger Annis is the candidate of the Communist League in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway. He is a member of the International Association of Machinists.  
 
 
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